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R. Daneel d'Anconia's avatar

I agree about the mental health benefits when responsibly enjoyed.

To touch on your initial question, why do we need the ticket for the experience, I think this is just simple cause and effect. Similar to what you said, buying the ticket puts one into a set of conditions which allow for the potential of winning to occur which in turn sets off thoughts of what that might look like.

I think that if one to set out to replicate this experience sans ticket it would be achievable with some mental fairly simple gymnastics. For instance, maybe instead of buying the ticket upon the thought arising, they don’t and just think about buying the ticket which leads them down the path of win scenarios and boom they’re right back in fantasy land.

Well, maybe.

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Mary W Walters's avatar

I write fiction and nonfiction for the same reason. Every time I send out a piece I've written for publication to an impossibly lofty magazine or journal, I launch myself into a fantasy world that lasts for several days. It actually improves my self-esteem, for no good reason. But it also makes me happy and hopeful.

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